While at Harvard, he was a member of the Trauma Team, treating upper and lower extremity injuries at the region’s Level-I trauma center. Caring for patients with these devastating injuries and helping restore their level of function is particularly rewarding to Dr. Hernandez.

He has given several national and international presentations, including one on his technique of computer-navigated knee replacement, which was presented at the International Computer Assisted Orthopedic Surgery meeting in Paris, France.

Dr. Hernandez was born and raised in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, and attended Easton Area High School. For college, he traveled to upstate New York to attend Cornell University, and majored in biology. During his undergraduate years, he took part in basic science and clinical research programs at some of the nation’s top research centers, including The Harvard School of Public Health, UCSF’s Cardiovascular Research Institute, and UCLA’s School of Medicine. Dr. Hernandez graduated from Cornell with Honors.

He then attended Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, and developed an early interest in orthopedics, specifically in joint replacement. He worked with surgeons in the orthopedic department researching the use of computers in joint replacement. This work, which was published in the Journal of Arthroplasty, showed that surgeons who use computer navigation in knee replacement achieve better alignment than surgeons who do not.

Returning to New York for his orthopedic surgery residency, Dr. Hernandez chose to attend the State University of New York, at Buffalo, as it is the nation’s premier center for CAOS (computer assisted orthopedic surgery) and the site where the first computer-navigated knee replacement in the United States was performed. During residency, Dr. Hernandez’s research efforts focused on hip arthroscopy, a minimally invasive technique used to treat sports injuries and some degenerative conditions. His work, which explained how to safely repair the hip labrum, was published in Arthroscopy. Dr. Hernandez excelled during his surgical training, and upon graduation was honored as the recipient of The Chairman’s Award.

LICENSURE

American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery- Certified July 24, 2012
Medical Board of California State LicenseIssued 12/09/09

ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS

American Acadmemy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons
California Orthopaedic Association

NATIONAL PRESENTATIONS

Northwestern Center for Orthopaedics, Chicago, IL Prospective evaluation of an image-free computer-assisted
navigation system in total knee replacement 05/2004 Prospective evaluation of the Exeter femoral stem 08/2001UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA
Cardiovascular Research Institute
The role of PAR2 on neutrophil activation 08/1999Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
The plasminogen-plasmin enzyme complex
and the inhibitory effect of EACA on streptokinase 08/1998Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Department of Neurobiology
Apoptosis in the moth, Manduca sexta 05/1999Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research Cornell University
The molecular biology of the Chestnut Blight fungus 08/1997